Word: marse
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In the traditional view, the dark areas of Mars are considered lowlands, with bright sectors a mere mile or so higher. But Carl E. Sagan, assistant professor of Astronomy, and James B. Pollack of the Smithsonian Astrophysical Observatory, have reversed the roles of dark and light areas. And the highland...
"Our new picture of Mars," Pollack said yesterday, "is much like the Earth without oceans." The dark areas are contintents, and the bright areas are dry ocean basins. There are differences, of course: Mars can support higher mountains because it has less gravity, and it overed with a thick layer...
Mars has continents, Pollack continued, it must have geological activity, too. Just as on the Earth, there must be forces within the planet that have molded the surface, pushing the continents above the deserts.
This continent theory may destroy the idea that the place to look for life on Mars is in the dark regions. Because water boils at a lower temperature at lower pressures, there is little chance that water could ever exist in the liquid form in the low-pressure dark areas...
"From this far away," Pollack mused, "it's easy to be ingenious." But there is no real basis for believing the darkness on Mars is vegetation. Sagan and Pollack suggest instead that in the spring, some dust is blown off the continents, sharpening the contrast between the dark high-lands...